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It had been too long. Normally Molinda was more trusting of her companion, normally she gave the girl the benefit of the doubt, but this time around too much time had passed and Meloda still hadn't returned yet. Molly had always been irrationally paranoid and quick to upset, too, so it wasn't terribly surprising to know that she'd started to freak out a little. In fact, what started out as harmless pacing and loud, worried yelling quickly evolved into much, much more, despite the constant urging of her other companions. And sure, the elf knew that what she was about to do was a horrible idea but it didn't stop her; something could have happened to Melli and she would be damned and dead before she laid down without a fight.

So she gathered up her things and then managed to find an appropriate disguise in the process. The journey to Fort Lina was long, almost too long, but she managed, somehow, to make it before nightfall and as she stepped closer to the gates, she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and tightened the robe around the rest of her body. It didn't take much convincing to get the gate guard to let her in, strangely enough, and within seconds she was prowling the gravel streets of a place that she very much wasn't supposed to be. She could practically hear Tybalt's voice in her mind, bitching and urging her to leave, but she'd come so far and she didn't plan on turning back, anyway.

Plus in her mind, her disguise was fairly top notch. She hadn't been noticed thus far, anyway, so it wasn't like anything could really go wrong. Molinda wasn't really the logical type, either, so she wasn't thinking in advance, or thinking at all. Her mind was on repeat, skipping like a record, and there was only one word that played over and over. Meloda. What if she'd gotten hurt? Killed? Kidnapped for ransom? What if she was up for execution? She always went off and did shit like this, sure, and Molly always hated it, but something about this time was different.

The blond elf took light steps as she continued through the city, her head lowered but her eyes raised. She passed quite a few lower guards and considered herself lucky. She'd yet to pass by anyone of a higher rank, it seemed, and briefly her mind actually wondered if they were elsewhere, or asleep. Wouldn't that just be her lucky day?

Had Felix not been on duty that particular day, Molinda probably would have gotten away with her little excursion out of Rusue. While there were wanted posters on just about every surface in Fort Lina, many of which bore her face and name, faces just blended together in this sort of town. The Returners could walk right on past the average guard and go unseen, but today simply wasn't Molly's lucky day. Felix had a talent of sorts with things like these; he'd "connected" with a fair share of former Returners, and as such knew enough about Molly to paint a mental picture of her in his head. How she walked, the way she spoke, the expressions she wore. It was a much better picture than a measly drawing on a wanted poster, certainly, and while he hadn't necessarily been looking for her, she caught his eye nonetheless.

What caught his attention first was the fact that she was an elf at all. Light elves lived in towns throughout Kateria, so their presences weren't necessarily uncommon. However, their looks was something that was hard to peel away from, especially on this particular girl; her beautiful face was practically begging to be stared at. And unfortunately for her, her features were definitely distinctive, features he couldn't forget even if he tried.

He stood completely still for a few moments, in awe of his luck. They'd been looking for Molinda for ages now, and here she was, wandering right in front of him. Again, the posters didn't do her beautiful face justice; likely any other guard would have walked right past her. But he knew that face even if he'd never really seen it before, and he knew immediately who she was.

So he approached her with a polite, pleasant smile. The guards were already striding up behind her, too, though he hoped they wouldn't be needed. "Hello, Molinda. Could we go somewhere and chat for a moment?" Always too formal.

Normally Molly was the attentive one; she'd been emotionally scarred enough to be permanently paranoid and to fear and hate everything and everyone at once. She wandered plain fields with a spell on her lips and revenge in her heart, but this time she'd let her guard down. The fear that Melli had gotten take was overwhelming and taking control of every fiber of her being and for once, Molinda Cadence had made a mistake. She didn't notice the Katerian general standing ridiculously close to her, nor did she notice his eyes suddenly on her. She knew most of the Katerian Legion leaders, too, which made the situation that much worse.

It wasn't until he was literally a foot before her that she even registered he was there, though by then it was way too late. Her eyes widened for a second and a curse escaped her breath, but she shook away the fear and stood there, stone faced as he spoke. Her body was tense, however, and her body language in general betrayed her; she wanted to look brave, act fearless, but she knew then and there that she'd fucked up. She wasn't even really worried about her own safety, either, so much as she realized that she would be finding Melli just a little bit later than she'd planned to.

Regardless, she gritted her teeth and shook her head lightly, though she kept anything ridiculously negative to herself as she could feel the guards behind her closing in. "I don't think I have the time,' she hissed, her eyes desperately searching for a way out in the nearly complete circle that had formed around her. She was trapped, she figured, and while such a thing should have had her agreeing to go with him in a matter of seconds, Molly was never the type to go down without a fight.

So she did what she knew best -- she uttered a spell. The quick, rushed, hushed sound of something almost indecipherable escaped from her lips and a black haze of smoke appeared before her and began dripping between them. She smirked behind the smoke as a form materialized in the midst of the haze; slowly but surely her summoned Revenant appeared and the smoke disappeared, and she shook her head again, smirking just as arrogantly as before.

He was afraid of this. He knew from the moment she recognized his presence that she wasn't going to respond as well as he'd hoped. Hell, no one reacted to that politeness like he hoped; every now and then there was someone trembling at his feet and spouting off facts before they could even take them into custody, which wasn't what he'd been going for either. Sadly, Felix was optimistic enough to think that something like a mutual understanding could be formed before parting ways. And to date, that certainly hadn't happened.

So he wasn't so sure why he even tried that with Molinda. It wasn't as if she was going to smile right back at him and tell him everything he needed to know, especially considering she was the leader of the Returners. He was practically standing in front of a celebrity now-- or Kateria's most wanted, either way you looked at it. It was certainly expected that she would fight back, which she was undoubtedly doing. The smoke that appeared before him confirmed that much, and he sighed, closing his eyes for a moment to take in the situation.

He considered faking the environment for her, making things change, but he was afraid to give up those secrets quite yet. In fact, he still had a lot of interrogating to do before he wanted her to know he was an Illusionist, after all, so he merely shrugged his shoulders before drawing his sword. Now, he wasn't the best with melee combat, so this was more a sign to the rest of his soldiers, all of which were very strong in melee as well. They started to come after both herself and her Revenant, and he hoped that perhaps some of them were strong enough to take her down.

He seemed rather composed all the while, too; he merely sighed, his sword held to his side in obvious vulnerability. He clearly had too much faith in the Legion.

Molly was almost certain that her threat wouldn't work, but she pressed on regardless; she was literally surrounded by some of Kateria's best, after all, so it wasn't like one elf and her summoned creature would scare them. She did possess a cocky amount of confidence in her abilities, however, so she didn't necessarily back down either. She was ridiculously reckless when it came down to it, honestly, which was why she almost always needed Melli by her side to tell her to stop and retreat sometimes.

Not this time, though. As Felix drew his sword and the metallic sound of all the other soldiers doing the same hit her ears, she readied herself for a battle she'd likely die during. She glanced around at her enemies, too, and noted that there were far too many to count. She narrowed her eyes, though, and started speaking in the same language that she'd spoken in earlier. In response, her revenant started attacking, f0llowing her commands with ease, albeit clumsily.

The sound of metal clashing surrounded her, too, as the dark spirit zipped back and forth and brought its scythe up to meet every sword that swung in her direction. That was all it could do, however; it was stuck on defensive when she desperately needed it to be offensive. There were simply too many guards, however, and she watched with exasperation as three soldiers brought her summoned creature down. It faded with a scream and a puff of smoke, just as it appeared, and before she could even try again, she felt arms and the sharp edge of a blade in her side.

"De profundo inferni, advoca tibi i..." she hissed, but before she could even finish, there was a hand over her mouth. Despite her thrashing, she was stuck; there was nothing to do and nowhere to go, though it didn't stop her from trying, her eyes narrowed over at Felix the whole time.

Felix was nervous. Not frightened, really, since that wasn't something he was terribly familiar with, but he definitely felt a little nervous now that he saw the strength of her magic displayed right in front of him. Interesting magic-- magic he wasn't used to dealing with, considering it was banned from the mage's college. It was foreign to the rest of the soldiers fighting it, too, and he couldn't help but wonder if they would lose this battle just like this. If approaching her "politely" was a mistake in the first place.

Regardless, she eventually went down. He felt tension release from his shoulders at the sight, and it likely displayed on his normally composed features in the form of something like surprised satisfaction. He didn't touch her, though; he allowed the soldiers to carry her as he, too, looked right back at her. Unlike her, he wasn't irritated-- instead, he was mostly investigating her features as they carried her backwards to the local fort.

He mostly intended to apprehend her. Perhaps come to some sort of understanding-- while, yes, it was ordered that a girl like her should be executed, he just never saw the use in that sort of thing. People could understand, and it was always important to gain an ally, in his opinion, rather than kill someone for disagreeing. She hadn't done a whole lot other than disagree, had she? Clearly he didn't know the extent of the Returners. Hell, Felix wasn't told a lot of things, if only because they still wanted him to stay. Had he known everything there was to know, he might have been the captive one here.

"Now, Molinda," he said carefully as they were escorted through a back alley and into a darker area. It was clearly a dungeon of sorts, though it wasn't nearly as threatening as it could have been. "There's no need to act this way. We'll let you go as soon as we're satisfied." He could care less that she couldn't answer.

Eventually they tossed her into one of the rooms, taking her bag of bones away from her. There was no cell, though, nor was there any rope or shackles or anything of the sort. Instead there was just a chair on the other side of the room. Felix motioned towards it pointedly, his eyebrows raised.

Had her voice been free, Molly would have been shouting at the top of her lungs. Well, okay, had her voice been free, she would have been casting another spell and attempting to fight again, but had that not been an option, the Katerian Legion in general wouldn't know what hit them. Nothing could accurately describe the burning rage that pulsed through her veins at that moment, honestly; fire hot couldn't even compare to just how pissed she was.

Not only had she been captured, but she was still entirely convinced that Melli had been too, and she knew for a fact that there was no way they'd let them share a jail cell together. She wasn't about to let Melli die, either; that was simply not on the agenda.

Then again, at the moment it didn't look like she had much of a choice, either. She thrashed and fought back as much as she could, but the hold the other guards had on her was something she simply couldn't break. Her eyes narrowed at Felix's words, too, though she quickly snapped her own vision from him just to avoid giving him any satisfaction at all. She wouldn't back down, she knew that much for sure; whatever she had to do to escape, she'd do it.

Then again, she also hadn't expected to be carted off to a dungeon, either. She glanced around at the alley and then at the room she was tossed into, though that distraction alone was a downfall, for sure. She snapped her hand out in a sad, failed attempt to grab her bones, though by the time her limb met the air, it was too late. She growled under her breath as she stood and watched the guards disappear out of the room before she turned to look back at Felix.

He was so calm, so passive about the whole thing, and that alone pissed her off all the more. She snarled at him for a second before she shook her head and spat at his feet. "I wouldn't be caught dead telling legion scum anything."

She was a feisty one, wasn't she? Spitting at his feet, calling him scum-- it wasn't something he hadn't seen before, and it certainly wasn't a surprise to him, but he still didn't like it. Disliking it didn't mean he was pissed, though, as he remained rather calm the entire while, simply sighing and shaking his head as if she just didn't understand.

Likely she thought he was being sarcastic, he reasoned. Which, he wasn't-- Felix wasn't really a liar unless he was using his magic, in which case he weaved a rather excellent web of lies. It was believable even to him; he, too, sometimes found himself believing that what he conjured was true.

"I suspect you'll think differently as we talk a little more," Felix said with a pleasant, though expressionless smile. It was almost as if he was talking to an impatient child. "What brought you to Fort Lina today, Molinda?" His eyebrows raised as he asked this particular question, and he crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall. "The delicious noodles, I'm sure."

He was making a joke-- a bad one, at that. But it was worth a try, right? Besides, Fort Lina did have some delicious noodles. Either way, he laughed at his own joke even if she didn't find it funny, shaking his head for a moment before continuing. "No, but really. Don't you Returners usually stay far away from Fort Lina? I'm just curious as to why you would wander right into the Katerian Legion's base. It just seems rather... odd, don't you think?"

Molinda was never the type of girl to do something without reason, even if that reason was to piss someone off in the worst way possible. Of course, it wasn't a good idea by any means and she knew that -- she was defenseless, magicless, and she couldn't conceivably find an exit to the room she was in in five seconds flat if her life depended on it, but she hated the royal family, their laws, the way they treated their country, and the ignorant, irrational ragtag band of idiots that they hired and called their army. She also got far too pissed herself, however, and for the most insane reasons: just seeing the general barely react to her own action had her seething all over again, and she literally growled as a response.

For once, though, even she could admit that the entire situation confused her. Sure, she half-expected to get caught that day -- she'd wandered right into the base of her mortal enemies, after all, so to expect a breezy, peaceful day was anything but normal. What she hadn't expected, however, was to be brought into confinement and chatted with like she was simply a regular, everyday villager. She wasn't, either, and he clearly knew that, which was something else she couldn't understand. Didn't most of her bounties have a 'kill on sight' tag on them?

She wasn't necessarily feeling calmed or even happy about the situation, though; in fact, his joking mannerisms and his lighthearted attitude was only making her paranoia rise and her anger rise higher. She peeled her lips back into a snarl, too, before she narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head. She wasn't about to admit to the reasons why she'd been in Fort Lina on the off chance that Melli hadn't come through. Luckily she was fairly quick witted, too, so she did have an excuse tucked away as well. The only problem with that, however, was the fact that she was simply too proud and too aggressive to actually answer his question.

"I'm not telling you anything,' she hissed, backing against the wall and avoiding the chair he'd pointed to altogether.